Gender and Development

Sri Lanka

Loan 2027-SRI: North East Coastal Community Development Project - 2003¹

Background:

Sri Lanka is emerging from two decades of civil conflict that led to an enormous economic and human cost and reduced available resources for economic and social development. In the North and East, in particular, hostilities between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eealam (LTTE) curbed production, caused 65,000 deaths, damaged essential infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hospitals and schools and internally displaced 800,000 people. While national poverty levels have been around 25% over the past decade, poverty rates in the North and East are believed to be as high as 60%. The coastal communities in the East are also affected as a result of restrictions on fishing activities, loss of fishing gear, boats, and possessions as well as limited access to the natural resource base that has been the traditional source of livelihoods.

The North East Coastal Community Development Project is classified as a core poverty intervention loan with gender and development and environmental protection thematic classifications targeted to the poor in conflict-affected areas.

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Objectives and Scope:

The overall goal of the North East Coastal Community Development Project is to meet basic needs and reduce poverty in three districts of Sri Lanka's Eastern province through sustainable livelihood improvement, sound management of natural resources, and fisheries development. The project consists of the following components:

1. Sustainable Livelihood Improvement: Livelihood and enterprise development services (LEDS) will be provided in agriculture, agro-forestry, and fishery activities. A microcredit delivery system will be established to support new enterprises. Small-scale infrastructure investments will be based on a comprehensive needs assessment. To support vulnerable groups, targeted livelihood interventions are planned for the indigenous Veddah community
2. Natural Resource Management in Three Special Management Areas (SMAs): Natural resource management in the area will be improved and acute environmental problems addressed through community-based resource management interventions such as mangrove replanting, solid waste management, introduction of fuel efficient stoves, and alternative energy sources such as solar power. Public awareness programs will be conducted with newly formed local resource management groups
3. Coastal Resource Planning: A coastal resource management plan will be set up for the Eastern Province with shoreline management, tourism development, and other economic activities. Enforcement of laws and regulations and strengthening capacities of the relevant agencies will also be addressed
4. Fisheries Development: Two major harbor facilities will be rehabilitated, public private partnerships will be set up for the provision of on-shore commercial activities, and training and awareness programs will be provided for fishermen, boat owners, processors and traders on improved fish handling and on-board storage methods as well as improved processing and marketing methods
5. Project Implementation Support: Management and monitoring systems will be established to support timely and cost-effective project implementation. The information education communication strategy will provide access to current project information; will guide awareness campaigns, events and training; and will establish effective communication mechanisms among project implementation partners

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Framework for GAD Activities:

During the conflict period, many women became heads of households and many others left the country seeking work in the Middle East. The poverty and social assessment done during project preparation found that although some role reversals have occurred, women in eastern coastal communities are still under the grip of patriarchal attitudes and practices. As a result, they face unequal access to resources and skill training, inequitable divisions of labor, job discrimination, wage disparities, increasing domestic violence, and incest. In addition, they have been doubly affected by poverty. While poverty and the trauma of war affect them equally, the Tamil, Muslim, and Sinhalese women in coastal communities all have different cultural practices and traditions that control their lifestyles.

Unlike in other parts of Sri Lanka, women in the east are only peripherally engaged in marine fishery support activities. In exceptional cases, they mend nets. Women are more involved in lagoon fishing where they engage in a number of unprofitable activities like catching shrimps or gleaning for clams and oysters both for home consumption and for sale. Mat weaving is another prevalent income generating activity for women in the area. Since men seasonally migrate for agricultural work and leave women at home, women are in desperate need for microenterprise activities to improve their livelihoods.

The gender action plan for the North East Coastal Community Development Project in Sri Lanka was developed to address gender constraints under the following framework:

• Provide appropriate skill training for employment free from gender bias
• Ensure gender issues are addressed in all project training in order to create a supportive environment for women
• Target livelihood improvement and microenterprise development activities for women with special emphasis on female-headed households
• Develop woman-friendly community and social infrastructure
• Dispel negative images of "widowhood" from public awareness programs to enable widows to gain self-respect and to participate in the economy as valued citizens
• Ensure participation by local women's NGOs in project activities

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Gender Inclusive Design:

The SARD poverty reduction specialist participated in the loan fact finding mission and was joined by the newly appointed SRLM gender specialist in the loan appraisal mission to mainstream gender issues in the project design. Among the special features that have been built into this project are a gender strategy and an implementation plan that use a two-pronged approach to address gender issues. The first is to develop concrete interventions to address the issues, and the second is to ensure there are mechanisms to support and strengthen these interventions. The gender implementation plan elaborates the specific features built into each component to address gender concerns during project implementation.

1. Sustainable Livelihood Improvement: The proportion of female-headed households was one criterion used in the selection of project communities. Participatory community needs assessments (PNA) will be conducted with men and women separately. Project information centers will have woman-friendly hours and information. Key targets that have been set to ensure women's participation in sustainable livelihood improvement initiatives include:
• 30% female membership is required in DS-level steering and monitoring committees
• one implementing partner in each district will be a women's NGO
• in providing livelihood and enterprise development services, one NGO will be specialized in providing business skill training, technology transfer, and marketing information to women entrepreneurs
• 50% of the members' livelihood clusters will be women and some clusters will be for women only
• 50% of all small-scale community and social infrastructure projects will be designed to meet women's needs as identified in the PNA
• 50% female participation is targeted in mentoring programs for micro entrepreneurs and planning of environmental conservation and restoration projects
• all training activities will be gender sensitive and will include gender awareness modules
2. Natural Resources Management in Three SMAs: Stakeholder consultations on environmental impacts will ensure at least 30% female participation. Detailed resource mapping and identification of resource management priorities will include participation of women. Fifty percent female participation will be ensured in conservation and restoration activities as well as in community-based enforcement and management committees
3. Coastal Resource Planning: All capacity building through training at provincial, district and divisional levels will include gender awareness modules and will ensure at least 30% of participants are women. Databases and studies will include data disaggregated by gender and information reflecting assessment of women's use of natural resources. Women will make up 30% of all committees formed and will be included as separate stakeholders to ensure that their voices are heard and included in decision-making forums
4. Fishery Development: Under the fishery harbor rehabilitation activities, women will be included as separate stakeholders representing women entrepreneurs, boat owners, and traders in training and awareness programs, in public private partnerships for the provision of onshore commercial activities, and in needs assessment surveys and studies
5. Project Implementation Support: Selection criteria for all project specialists, NGOs, and other service providers will include experience with gender and development issues. The project performance management system and participatory monitoring and evaluation systems will collect data disaggregated by gender and will measure performance against gender-specific indicators.

   Sufficient resources have been allocated to recruit a social development consultant to ensure continuous guidance and close monitoring of the gender implementation plan, to provide consistent feedback to the project team and other stakeholders on GAD activities, to assist in collecting data disaggregated by gender, and to conduct gender training. The social development consultant will also report on the project's impact on women including an analysis of specific gender constraints in the project area and how they were addressed

6. Assurances: The Gender Action Plan is covenanted

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Guidance on GAD Activities:

The SRLM gender specialist will closely collaborate with the social development consultant as well as the SARD poverty reduction specialist to follow up, oversee and ensure that gender interventions are implemented as outlined in the gender implementation plan.